Ripple

Ripple when referring to sound is defined as to go on or proceed with an effect like that of waterflowing in ripples.

In this work I have interpreted this meaning very literally in that the opening grid of full orchestralstabs sets up a rhythmic framework from which a hocketed treatment arises of winds and stringssupported by the brass and percussion. A secondary ripple is set in place with the more playfulideas in the woodwinds starting in bar 6 of the work. This material ripples through the work invarious guises: set contrapuntally in a very slow form in the middle section of the work as well asproviding expressive focus when set for strings only about three quarters of the way through thepiece. Of course the fast sections are always punctuated by this material set in its originalscherzando form and serving to contrast the bold muscularity of the full orchestral hits punctuatingthe piece.

In a formal sense the work is cast in a type of 5 part form with the original opening A sectionappearing three times in varied form. The scherzando material forms the basis of the twocontrasting B sections: first the slow expressive section where it is set in canon with itself and asecond time for strings only where it is set in an intensified more keenly expressive manner. Thusthe work has a fairly traditional ABABA form with the materials all drawn from the opening tenor so measures.

The work was written at the Bundanon Artists Centre near the Shoalhaven river on the south coastof New South Wales in late 2002.